One of the more bizarre Peak Trump Moments (PTM) tonight was this stream of consciousness answer when Trump seemed to argue that even though he never publicly said anything negative about the Iraq War until almost three years later when it was deeply unpopular, he had private conversations on the subject with the highly credible Sean Hannity. And all you have to do is call Hannity who will totally back him up.
TRUMP: The record does not show — the record shows that I am right. I did an interview with Howard Stern, very lightly, first time anyone’s asked me that, I said, I don’t know, who knows. Essentially. I then did an interview with Neil cavuto, we talked about the economy was so important. I spoke to Sean Hannity, everyone refuses to call Sean Hannity. And Sean Hannity said, and he called me the other day, and I spoke to him about it, he said, you were totally against the war — he was for the war.
HOLT: Why is —
TRUMP: Excuse me, that was before the war started. Sean Hannity said, very strongly, to me and other people. He’s willing to say it, nobody wants to call him. I was against the war. He said, you used to have fights with me. Because Sean was in favor of the war. And I understand that side also, not very much, we should have never been there. But nobody called Sean hannity. And then they did an article in a major magazine, shortly after the war started, I think in ’04, but they did an article which had me totally against the war in Iraq. And one of your compatriots said, you know, whether it was before or right after, trump was definitely — because if you read this article, there’s no doubt. But if somebody, and I’ll ask the press, if somebody would call up Sean hannity, this was before the war started, he and I used to have arguments about the war. I said, it’s a terrible, and a stupid thing, it’s going to destabilize the middle east, and that’s exactly what it’s done.
HOLT: My reference was to what you said in 2002, and my question was —